topic Re: 3g in Mobile Network discussions

3g

Imsol — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 08:52:22 GMT

3g shutdown

I have an issue with the 3g shutdown by EE. My wife has had her mobile number for a long time perhaps 30 years. When she acquired a modern smartphone a couple of years ago ie one capable of 4g the phone would only receive data at the 3g rate and sometimes E. Fitting a new SIM card with a new number and it happily ran at 4G. BUT she doesn't want to change her number as she has her current number in so many places like NHS, doctor etc that she simply doesn't want to change.

We visited an EE shop where they said no problem - fit a new SIM and in a couple of hours we'll port her old number to it and all will be fine. But it didn't go to plan--a couple of hours in 4g but then it dropped back to 2g after the old number was ported over.

It almost seems that her number itself is locked to 3g or should I say it was. Now that the EE network has switched off 3g the data rate has dropped to E or 1g.

The phone is a Motorola G9 Play and the number is 07811xxxxxx originally from Orange.

Re: 3g

Chris_B — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 09:22:01 GMT

@Imsol Sounds like you’re still on a 3G EE tariff when the number came over from Orange. I would call customer services to get this checked.

Re: 3g

bristolian — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 09:22:44 GMT

With 3G-sunset, a non 4G phone will use the 2G network by design - an "E" symbol signifies EDGE which is a 2G enhancement.

As to why a particular SIM is preferring 2G, would be account-specific.

Re: 3g

Imsol — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 09:32:55 GMT

4g is widely available and both the SIM and the account are 4g. any other
SIM works with 4g, no problem.

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Re: 3g

Christopher_G — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 10:45:24 GMT

Hi @Imsol

It may be worth speaking to our Mobile Care team to make sure everything looks OK from our end now that the transfer has gone through.

Chris

Re: 3g

Imsol — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 05:21:22 GMT

A most helpful EE team member recognised the problem and was able to fix it unlike other EE people in the past (prior to the 3g sunset).

Thank you Robert and Christopher

Re: 3g

James_B — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 07:29:20 GMT

That's great, @Imsol 🙂

Thanks for letting us know.

James